A man who is remembered but never known
by Spiral as you twirl
Summary: A story about how people can never truly know a person, started of as a secret spy Colby but somehow turned into a tragedy of heroism commentry
1. The Team

**Disclaimer: All that you recognise does not belong to me but someone else.**

**This is weird drabble I know, it stated as one thing but turned into something else. It's kind of based on a bigger story idea I have but also not. It is a sort of numb3rs trial fic, because I love reading but can be a bit of a rubbish writer. I apologise in advance for the spelling and grammar error which will be in here somewhere.**

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Colby rarely talked about Afghanistan, if he did it was awkward, he didn't really want to tell, they didn't really want to listen. No one wants to hear a man talk about the horrors of war, even less so a man who has experienced them personally. So that is the principle in which he lives by, he doesn't talk, and if they ask which rarely happens he doesn't really reply. They will never truly know what Colby Granger did for his country until his death, but they piece together bits. When they start to find out they tend to stop looking for information on the man, they decide it easier not to know.

They all know Colby was army, they're not surprised when he is under investigation for treason that most of his file is from army; they don't realise quite how long he was in the army until then. It surprises them when they discover he joined up at sixteen, having completed high school, they never took him as the brainy type. It surprises them further to learn what Colby actually did at university, Spanish, with minors in Russian and Arabic, they never expected him to be a linguist. They find things they did know about him too, the football, the wrestling, they just never realised quite how good he was, winning international tournaments before his shoulders gave up. There is precious little else that they can read on his file, most of it is highly classified, Charlie could probably access it if he wanted to, but he doesn't want to. When looking they find medical reports, the horrendous burns he suffered in the humvee, the gunshot and shrapnel wounds, they wonder why they don't see the scars; but never bother to ask, they feel uncomfortable.

They only wonder when Clay Porter calls him a hero, they were under the impression that most of his work was with CID; he shouldn't have seen much action. They won't know until much later that Colby Granger was one of the countries best soldiers in special ops. They find the medals when searching his apartment, no-one bothers to find out what they are for; they are placed in an evidence bag and given a number. The stories that belong to them are ignored, they are not considered important. The person who manages evidence has a brother in the army, he recognises the medals and stores them carefully, quietly hiding his anger at how one mans story can be given a series of numbers.

Charlie and Megan know more than most of the team; they come across him when he's not with the FBI. Charlie many years earlier when he was consulting for the DoD, back then Colby was just a soldier round a table listening to orders, now he knows the man and realises that every person in that room was to someone very special indeed. Megan meets the real Colby briefly, he is in Washington for a while, working. They meet up for drinks, to catch up; he is dressed in his army uniform, his general's stars glinting on his shoulders. She wonders but does not ask, she has had to put together so many old soldiers' heads, she hopes she never has to do it for her friend. She worries about him sometimes, but most for the time she tries to remember him as the easy going Idaho farm boy she knew him as.

Ian never lets on in all his time with the FBI, who Colby Granger is. It is not his place to do so, that is something he understands, so he hides the fact that he knew the man well, that for a long time the man was his commanding officer. Partly out of fear, and partly because he knows that is how these things go. The team wonders why he shows Colby so much respect, but he figures that respecting a guy who could kill you very easily in numerous ways is one of the best ways to stay alive.

Colby leaves the FBI shortly after the whole Janus list affair, without a word to anyone, without even the hint of a warning. One day he just doesn't turn up for work, the next Don is called in for a meeting with the Assistant Director, he never tells anyone what he heard that day, he almost refuses to believe it himself. It only sinks in that Colby has gone for good several weeks later when two men come and clear his desk, the bureau sends a replacement the next day, but no-one ever quite fills the place he has left.

For a while they have no contact with the man, no idea whether he is alive or dead, that continues for a while. Then one day, on David's birthday, a present and card are delivered neatly wrapped and thoughtfully chosen; these gifts every birthday and Christmas are the only indications the team has of him still being alive. For that small mercy they are grateful, there is a place set for him at Charlie and Amita's wedding, just in case he received the invite, just in case he can come. He doesn't. A large parcel and a Dictaphone do however, he wishes them his congratulations and says he is sorry he can't be there, it sounds as if he means it. They send a thank you letter in the post, it is returned several weeks later, it takes Charlie a month to spot the tiny X that has been scratched into the envelope.

Most fo the team never see Colby alive again; they are unable to initiate any form of contact. The first explanation that get is an invitation to his funeral; he has died it says in a tragic accident aged just 65. The bus he was on was involved in a crash, and even then fatally wounded he remained the hero; the information they receive states that had he not helped others, had he remained still, he would have almost certainly survived. But as Charlie points out, he is now most definitely dead.

They attend the funeral, held at Arlington as a group, the service is packed with soldiers and civilians alike, all of whom had somehow been touched by Colby Granger. The newspapers sing his praises; he is even thanked for his service to his country by the president himself. Don finds all that ironic, Colby would've hated this fuss, he had wanted a private service, instead he had ended up with a full state funeral, and the word hero would be synonymous with his for generations to come.

Maybe that was the tragedy. The man who had dedicated his life, who was without doubt a hero. Was remembered simply as that, a hero, another hero in the ever growing list; not as the man he was. The caring, generous friend, the loving husband and father, the beloved son and sibling, the brilliantly clever linguist. Merely as a hero; which was although the most memorable part in his life, not the most significant role he played.


	2. The Family

**Another chapter for a story that wasn't meant to have them but some very nice people encouraged me to write them, this is a series of drabbles on the thoughts of Colby's family; the next chapter will return to the thoughts of characters you know, but bare with me.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of the recognisable characters, which is 2 in this chapter**

At age 10, Lucy Granger had never met her Great Uncle Colby, she didn't know the man she was burying, only the stories her parents had told her about him. Apparently he was very brave and did lots of good things, but then in a family like hers most people had at some point served there country. She liked the stories about when he was little the best, about how he looked after one sheep that was poorly when he was meant to let it die. He had named that sheep woolly, and kept it in the back of the Hay barn for several months, until as her Dad had put it, it was one very spoiled sheep. Like all sheep it had died eventually, but she liked to think that it still had ancestors living on the Granger farm. When she grows old, this is the story that she tells her children about the man in the uniform, tucked behind photos of other better known family members, she tells them this story to remind herself that he was human, something which to a 10 year old girl was very difficult to understand.

There is a tradition of large families where Colby comes from, his is no exception to the rule, he is the middle child of seven. He gets the hand me downs that are just wearable, they are declared unusable after he has finished them, he is never the first to do anything, not school, not wrestling, not college, not the army; and in his parents eyes he never does it the best. He may have finished school the earliest, may have done the best for himself, but he is never the apple of his parents eyes. He won't inherit the farm, nor does his mother have the need to pass on household wisdoms to him, he is not the youngest the most spoilt, nor is he one of the twins the first in the Granger family for several generations. Sometimes when she finds the will power, she wonders if her son would have done what he did had they given him more attention, had they allowed him to be the first or the best just once. But it is too late to change the mistakes of the past, and so Mrs Emily-Anne Granger picks up the phone, and slowly punches her son's number into the key pad.

Closest in age and in friendship too Colby was his younger by 11 months and 20 days little sister, Charlotte. She had shared his experience as a forgotten child in the Granger household; though for the vast majority of their lives the two siblings had proved to the world that they were capable of arguing about everything and anything. To him she was a little sister who came up to him at school, embarrassed him in front of his friends and who needed protecting from the majority of males on the planet. To her he was an over protective big brother who failed to understand that as they were of the same age for approximately 11 days of the year she was not too young to hang out with him; and that yes she could go out with boys. When they were apart however she missed him with all her heart, and ensured that they met up at least three times a year to catch up; it was him she asked to give her away on her wedding day, partly because he was the only relative who hadn't asked, but mostly because he knew her better than anyone else, even her husband to be.

CJ Carter had always liked his godfather, who after his father had died had been there for him and taught him things like how to make mud pies and rope swings, things that his mum would heartily disapprove of. When he was old enough to learn about what his father had done, he felt no bitterness to the man who had worked to turn him in, instead he respected him. He had after all been taught from a young age that the only thing more important than loyalty to your country and your family, is respecting others. Sure it take him a while to pluck up the courage to speak to the guy again, but the problem is quickly overcome when Colby offers to help him with his wrestling; after that their relationship is back to its old self. Sometimes he wonders whether Colby gets lonely, whether he wants a wife and child of his own; many years later Colby confides in him that once upon a time there had been someone, but they had died long ago and far away from him and their loved ones.

**Hope you like it, I think the next chapter will be Megans POV, as you've probably noticed I won't be a paticularly regular updater, paticularly as I'm in the middle of doing my modules and it looks like there will be no more snow/ice days for the forseeable future**


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